The prospect of Walgreens opening a store on Broadway takes center stage Tuesday night, at the first and only public hearing on a proposed ordinance aimed at protecting the country music brand in that tourist-heavy part of downtown.

The fact that Walgreens would move into the address now occupied by Trail West, which sells western clothing, only intensifies the debate among downtown residents, merchants, real estate brokers and business leaders.

At a 6:30 p.m. public hearing held at the Metro Courthouse, Metro Council members will take comment on a proposal to create a "cultural heritage overlay district," applied to 17 acres of downtown property. It's roughly mapped here, but basically it's the heart of the honky-tonks, music venues and western and country retailers that reinforce Nashville's global "Music City" brand.

The ordinance would require new businesses or tenants planned for those properties to have a venue for live music — or, if it's a retailer (such as Walgreens), 75 percent of their products would be required to "support the cultural heritage district by promoting the district or musicians, craftsmen/makers or performance venues."

The name "Walgreens," or that of any other chain or store, appears nowhere in the rules; the company is not expected to have a representative speak at the hearing.

But Walgreens has become a poster-child for the ordinance, which may make it harder for such stores to open in that part of downtown.

An unidentified developer has had the Trail West building, on the corner of Broadway and Third Avenue South, under contract for the past two months, according to broker Richard Jones. Jones has been hired to recruit tenants to the site. The sale has not yet closed; Trail West would move just down the block.

The ordinance is proposed by Metro councilwoman Erica Gilmore, whose district covers much of downtown.

"It's saying, we want to promote those things that are unique," Gilmore said. "Music: That's what we sell. That has really worked for this city. Everything down there builds on that music scene somehow."

Gilmore said Walgreens was "a small part" of why she wrote the ordinance, which she introduced in early May.

The only current Walgreens store downtown falls outside Gilmore's proposed district, located on 5th Avenue North, four-tenths of a mile from the proposed additional store on Broadway.

"That's not my goal, to target any particular business. It's not an issue of Walgreens being there — I just want to make sure it's unique to Nashville," Gilmore said. Chain drug stores in Las Vegas have slot machines inside, Gilmore said; on a recent trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Gilmore said she noticed the chains paid for stucco exteriors, like most of the other buildings.

"If you're a big business, that's fine, but we want you to incorporate those things to keep that cultural identity of Nashville," Gilmore said. "We have to make sure we're conscientious of what we're doing when we placed certain buildings down there."

A FedEx retail store is across Broadway from Trail West. Diagonal to Trail West is a building housing the Opry Originals gift store and, for now, the local Colliers International commercial real estate brokerage.

Last month, the Metro Planning Commission previously disapproved the proposal by a 6-1 vote, with one member not participating. If the ordinance is revised, it would return to the commission for another vote.

A spokesman for Walgreens said: "I have no information about this location." Richard Jones, the Franklin-based broker working to bring Walgreens and other tenants to the Broadway site, said he expects to speak at the public hearing.

"We were pleased with the action the planning commission took," Jones said. He declined further comment.